Simon Dyer grew up as an athlete, but as fate would have it, an injury led him to join a chorus in an afterschool program. With a little encouragement and some nurturing, Simon went on to pursue a degree in Voice Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. As a student, Simon attended BLO’s performance of The Magic Flute...

After Mark-Anthony Turnage studied at Tanglewood Music Center with Hans Werner Henze in 1983, Henze arranged a commission from him for the Munich Biennale, and thus Greek premiered in 1988. The “then unknown, twenty-five-year-old English composer” had “never written a piece longer than fifteen minutes,” but...

The world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s first opera, Greek, took place on June 17, 1988 in Munich, Germany. The British composer had just turned 28, and his violent, visceral, in-your-face adaptation of the Oedipus myth propelled him into the forefront of composers of his generation. The press dubbed him “the angry young man of music,” a role he admits he delighted in playing for a number of years, and still enjoys from time to time.
Now, 28 years later, he has mellowed a little without losing his edge and his capacity to create surprise – both in music and in conversation...